Why Romanization?

While the Unicode enables scholarly communication in original scripts, there are still important reasons for Korean Studies scholars and students to learn the standard Korean romanization:
1. Romanization facilitates information retrieval in American academic databases (e.g. search for 青春 will retrieve different set of records from a search for 청춘 while the romanized "chongchun" will retrieve both sets);
2. Most American academic publishers require standard romanization when publishing your articles or books. A serious scholar of Korean Studies will benefit from learning the ALA/LC Romanization rules, which are the standard for all libraries in the western world including USC.

Since the ALA/LC Romanization Rules for Korean, a McCune-Reichauer based system, is quite different from the South Korean rules, you are strongly encouraged to make an appointment with a Korean Studies librarian for an introductory session. If you prefer learning on your own, please try the tutorial below.